Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
10 pending office actions • 7 art units • 10 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. is managing 10 pending office actions in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These actions are spread across 7 distinct art units, showing a high level of technical diversity within the company's current filings. The portfolio involves 10 distinct examiners, which means that every pending action is currently assigned to a different individual at the patent office.
WHITE, DAWANNA SHAR-DAY is the busiest examiner for the company, with 1 pending office action. This 1 action is part of the 10 total pending actions currently active. The distribution of 10 actions across 7 art units and 10 distinct examiners suggests a varied prosecution effort within the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sector, with no concentration of matters under a single examiner. For practitioners, this decentralized structure means that there is no single point of contact or dominant examiner style to master. Instead, the 10 pending office actions require 10 individual strategies tailored to the specific art units and examiners involved. This distribution across 7 art units highlights the complexity of managing the company's current Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals portfolio and the need for a broad prosecution approach.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 6 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 6 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (10%) |
| §112 only | 1 (10%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 3 (30%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (50%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| WHITE, DAWANNA SHAR-DAY | 1 | 62.5% | +23.3% |
| LIU, TRACY | 1 | 54.5% | +27.3% |
| SHI, GENBIN | 1 | — | — |
| SHIM, DAVID M. | 1 | 58.3% | +58.3% |
| BELL, SARA ELIZABETH | 1 | 68.8% | +38.2% |
| NESTOR, DONNA MICHELLE | 1 | 56.6% | +44.2% |
| HASTINGS, ALISON AZAR | 1 | 63.5% | +40.2% |
| WILSON, JERICA KATLYNN | 1 | 61.4% | +39.1% |
| HEITMEIER, KENDALL NICOLE | 1 | 65.9% | +41.0% |
| RODRIGUEZ, RAYNA B | 1 | 33.6% | +19.2% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18042748 | CRF RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | HASTINGS, ALISON AZAR | 15d overdue |
| 18705079 | VALBENAZINE COMPOSITIONS | LIU, TRACY | 22d |
| 18575126 | VALBENAZINE FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF DYSKINESIA DUE TO CEREBRAL PALSY | SHIM, DAVID M. | 46d |
| 18566865 | NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME INHIBITOR AND APPLICATION THEREOF | BELL, SARA ELIZABETH | — |
| 17641705 | PROCESSES FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF VALBENAZINE | HEITMEIER, KENDALL NICOLE | — |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16105396 | Pharmaceutical Formulations for Treating Endometriosis, Uterine Fibroids, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or Adenomyosis | RODRIGUEZ, RAYNA B | 118d overdue |
| 18286944 | METHODS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF CERTAIN VMAT2 INHIBITORS | NESTOR, DONNA MICHELLE | 26d overdue |
| 18042748 | CRF RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | HASTINGS, ALISON AZAR | 15d overdue |
| 17797368 | MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR 4 ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | WILSON, JERICA KATLYNN | 4d overdue |
| 18705079 | VALBENAZINE COMPOSITIONS | LIU, TRACY | 22d |
| 18575126 | VALBENAZINE FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF DYSKINESIA DUE TO CEREBRAL PALSY | SHIM, DAVID M. | 46d |
| 18726248 | NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME INHIBITOR AND USES THEREOF | WHITE, DAWANNA SHAR-DAY | — |
| 18566865 | NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME INHIBITOR AND APPLICATION THEREOF | BELL, SARA ELIZABETH | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1628 | 2 |
| 1627 | 2 |
| 1614 | 1 |
| 1626 | 1 |
| 1625 | 1 |
| 1621 | 1 |
| 1600 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18726248 | NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME INHIBITOR AND USES THEREOF | WHITE, DAWANNA SHAR-DAY | — | §102§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 02, 2024 |
| 18705079 | VALBENAZINE COMPOSITIONS | LIU, TRACY | 1614 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 22d | Pending | Apr 26, 2024 |
| 18293329 | MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR 4 ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | SHI, GENBIN | 1628 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 29, 2024 |
| 18575126 | VALBENAZINE FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF DYSKINESIA DUE TO CEREBRAL PALSY | SHIM, DAVID M. | 1626 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 46d | Pending | Dec 28, 2023 |
| 18566865 | NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME INHIBITOR AND APPLICATION THEREOF | BELL, SARA ELIZABETH | 1625 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 04, 2023 |
| 18286944 | METHODS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF CERTAIN VMAT2 INHIBITORS | NESTOR, DONNA MICHELLE | 1627 | §103DP | Final Rejection | 26d overdue | Pending | Oct 13, 2023 |
| 18042748 | CRF RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | HASTINGS, ALISON AZAR | 1627 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 15d overdue | Pending | Feb 23, 2023 |
| 17797368 | MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR 4 ANTAGONISTS AND METHODS OF USE | WILSON, JERICA KATLYNN | 1621 | §112Other | Final Rejection | 4d overdue | Pending | Aug 03, 2022 |
| 17641705 | PROCESSES FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF VALBENAZINE | HEITMEIER, KENDALL NICOLE | 1600 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 09, 2022 |
| 16105396 | Pharmaceutical Formulations for Treating Endometriosis, Uterine Fibroids, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or Adenomyosis | RODRIGUEZ, RAYNA B | 1628 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 118d overdue | Pending | Aug 20, 2018 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial